Modern motor vehicles, for example motor vehicles with combustion engines or electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles, depend on the use of ultrasound, radar, and/or stereo camera sensors for the generation of a virtual image of the three-dimensional environment of the motor vehicle. Many driver assistance systems work on the basis of values measured in this way.
As the number of sensors increases, the amount of the environmental data increases more and more as well. This means that information in areas in the environment of the motor vehicle can be analyzed that was previously not ascertainable. Consequently, the motor vehicle is provided with a wide-ranging overview of its environment. In addition, the combination of several measuring sensors in highly significant areas helps achieve redundancy and increased precision in the collection of data.
In this context, a method for the determination of the distance of an object from a vehicle is known from DE 10 2010 039 092 A1, in which a picture is taken of the surroundings in front of or behind the vehicle in the infrared wavelength range or in another wavelength range that cannot be perceived by the human eye. Furthermore, EP 1 628 141. A1 proposes a method for detecting and determining the distance of objects in the front of a motor vehicle by means of a mono-camera, whereby the mono-camera in the front of the vehicle is associated with at least two measuring beam emitters that emit measuring beams in a defined illumination pattern. In addition, a system is known from DE 10 2014 100 579 A1 for generating information on a projection surface in front of a motor vehicle, comprising an illumination device, a detection means, and an evaluation means, whereby the illumination device is designed to detect the light reflected by the projection surface.
The patent application DE 10 2013 016 904 A1 describes a lighting unit for a vehicle and a method for operating a lighting unit. To adjust a light distribution by means of a control unit, information can be sent to a light source module by means of a base-light distribution that can be adjusted. The adjustment of the light distribution and the operating parameters is performed here in particular automatically depending on an actual driving situation of the motor vehicle. This is determined by the control unit from state variables Z. The base-light distribution can be converted to a new desired light distribution by means of several functions such as an aperture function with four to six parameters.
The patent application WO 2013/117923 A1 describes an illumination unit for car headlights with a phase modulator. This illumination device is designed to provide controllable light beams for illuminating a scene. The illumination device comprises a spatial light phase modulator. With it, a light beam with a phase shift to the incident light can be generated. The illumination device further comprises a Fourier optic to receive the phase-modulated light from the spatial light modulator and to generate a new light distribution from it. The illumination device also comprises a projection optic to represent the light distribution.
At the moment, objects in front of the motor vehicle, in particular in a projected travel area, are detected and evaluated by means of a camera, for example. The continuous development of intelligent algorithms in the area of image processing makes the detection of obstacles and their removal possible, even though the camera sensor only provides a two-dimensional image for the evaluation which lacks depth data. For the evaluation, the manufacturer of a motor vehicle depends on the assumption that, in the automated evaluation, obstacles are correctly detected and interpreted. This constitutes a potential source of error.
Particularly when it is dark, the silhouettes and contours of an object in the travel range of the motor vehicle are more difficult to detect for a camera-based driver assistance system than during the day with a comparatively homogeneously lit environment.
The features and advantages of the present embodiments will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which like reference characters identify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally, similar elements.